Chapter 5 - The Coal Chute EscapeLily did not panic. When you live in the places adults forget to look, you learn that every room has an exit if you are small enough to find it.
Beneath the lowest row of safe deposit boxes was a narrow ventilation grate designed to allow air circulation through the vault’s concrete foundation. The iron grate was secured with two rusted screws. Lily didn't have a screwdriver, but she had the silver key fob Lawrence had given her—the heavy steel ring had a flat, triangular edge.
She dropped to her knees, working the edge of the fob into the slot of the first screw. Her hands were shaking, the metal slipping against her wet fingers, but she forced herself to breathe.
Turn. Slip. Turn.
The first screw dropped into the dust with a tiny ping.
The boots of the security guards were loud on the marble tiles now. They were ten feet from the iron gate.
“Hey! The gate is clear, but look at the floor. Wet footprints. Small ones.”
Lily worked on the second screw with a desperate, frantic energy. The edge of the steel fob tore into her thumb, her own blood slicking the metal, but she didn't stop. With a violent twist, the second screw gave way.
She kicked the iron grate inward. It fell into a dark, concrete crawlspace beneath the floor with a hollow clang.
“There she is! Grab her!”
A hand reached through the iron bars of the gate, the fingers brushing against the hood of Lily’s jacket just as she threw her body headfirst into the crawlspace. She scrambled on her hands and knees through the dark pipe, the rough concrete tearing at her skin as she dragged herself forward.
The crawlspace led back toward the boiler room in the basement. Behind her, she could hear the guards cursing as they realized they were too large to follow her through the vent.
“Go around to the alley! She’s heading for the basement!”
Lily tumbled out of the pipe onto the coal pile she had landed on earlier. She didn't look back. She scrambled up the shifting black dust toward the coal chute she had entered through. The opening looked small and distant against the gray morning sky that was beginning to break outside.
She hooked her fingers onto the iron frame, pulling her body up through the narrow chute just as the basement door exploded open behind her.
“Stop right there!”
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A hand caught the heel of her shoe. Lily kicked back with all her might, her sneaker slipping off her foot entirely, leaving it in the guard’s hand. She scrambled out onto the wet gravel of the alley, completely barefoot on her right foot, and bolted into the morning mist.
She didn't look back until she reached the railroad tracks. The black SUV was spinning its tires at the end of the alley, but it couldn't follow her across the narrow pedestrian footbridge over the drainage ditch. She was clear. But she had only one shoe, the sky was growing bright, and she had to get back to the barn before Arthur’s men found Lawrence.
